Falling
by Fezzes at 221b
Summary: What if Percy didn't catch Annabeth in time, in Mark Of Athena? Dark!Percy. AU. Overlaps the second to last chapter in MoA.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, so it's Seaweed Brain's birthday today, so Percy Jackson overload. This is a multi chapter story, four chapters all of which are currently being written and uploaded.**

 **Have a great day and eat some blue cake!**

 **Fez.**

*Set in MoA, just before Annabeth falls.*

Nico had just reached the ladder when a sharp pain shot up Annabeth's bad legs. She stumbled and gasped.

"What is it?" Percy asked.

She tried to stagger towards the ladder.

Why was she moving backwards instead?

Her legs swept out from under her and she fell on her face.

"Her ankle!" Hazel shouted from the ladder. "Cut it, Percy! Cut it!"

Annabeth's mind was woolly from pain. Cut her ankle?

It seemed Percy didn't understand what Hazel meant either. Then something yanked Annabeth backwards and dragged her towards the pit.

Her hands scrabbled at the sandy ground as Percy lunged after her. He missed, skidding across the floor. Annabeth sobbed as she hit the edge and fell over the edge. Pain was washing her vision red and she clawed desperately at the sides of the chasm, kicking with her legs.

Somehow, her hand caught onto a ledge, hardly the size of a bookshelf. Small pebbles rained down at her as she squinted up at the sunlight and the face of Percy leaning over the edge.

"ANNABETH!" He roared down the chasm, the ledge she had landed on was further than she could climb with a gummy leg and her arms were tiring.

"I'll close the doors!" she shouted up at him, the combined force of Arachne falling and the pull of the Underworld made it harder and harder to hold on.

"No, Annabeth, wait! We'll get down to you-"

"I'm sorry, Percy." she whispered, her voice cracking.

Her hand unclenched, instantly falling back, one arm raised to the sky and Percy before the darkness swallowed her up.


	2. Chapter 2

"No, Annabeth!" Percy screamed, pushing himself up from where he had been flat out on the floor, reaching over the edge, to ready to leap into the chasm o=after Annabeth.

Hazel lunged from the ladder, landing next to Percy and latched onto his arm, holding his back from jumping in. Nico hobbled over, grabbing Percy's other arm.

"No!" Percy writhed in their grip, stumbling towards the gaping hole in the floor and peering over.

"Frank! Jason!" Hazel yelled, eyes glimmering with tears.

Frank circled down, morphing into human as he landed, Jason zipping down.

Piper flung herself down the ladder. "What-?" she said, surveying the chaos. Then it dawned on her and her hand shot to her mouth.

"Frank, Jason, fly him up." Hazel was struggling to speak past the lump in her throat, she hadn't known Annabeth very well, but it hurt her to see Percy so upset.

Frank grabbed Percy around the waist and turned into a dragon, Jason flew up with him holding Percy's arms as he continued to flail.

When they landed on the ship, going excruciatingly slowly, trying to keep their grip on the distraught boy, Piper and Leo were already there, Hazel pulling herself over the rail, Nico looking up at them from behind Hazel.

Percy stumbled to the rail, looking desperately over the side as Leo got the ship in the air, the Athena Parthenos secured.

He sank to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks. Pipes, sinks, toilets, taps, showers, anything with water in exploded, raining metal and droplets on the small huddle of teenagers.

Below them fountains spurted into the air, rivers burst their banks and streets flooded. People poured out into the streets in chaos and confusion, too busy trying to save shoes and tables from the outside cafes to look up at the ship and it's grieving passengers.


	3. Chapter 3

Nine days later, Percy had dark circles under his eyes, and had eaten the barest minimum.

Piper watched him from the doorway to the mess hall, Jason hovering behind her, their hands intertwined. Coach was leaning against the wall opposite to them, lips pressed tight together.

Percy was slumped at one of the tables, sitting across from Nico and Hazel.

Annabeth falling into Tartarus had hit them all hard, but not as hard as it had to Percy.

Piper had lost her best friend, aside from Leo and Jason. Leo had disappeared into the engine room, emerging only for food, and even then he sometimes sent Buford out for it.

They had never seen Percy like this: so hysterical and fragile.

Suddenly Nico gave a small gasp and Percy's eyes snapped up to him, hope and resignation shining in their depths.

Hazel glanced at Nico who looked back at her. Hazel covered her mouth with her hand, fresh tears in her amber eyes.

"Nico." Percy's voice was cracked and rusty from disuse. He was sitting horribly still, so unlike his usual fidgeting.

Nico shook his head, a tiny, hushed "No." whispering past his lips.

Frank came forward and hugged Hazel who cried in his arms.

Piper felt Jason's arms come around her waist, and she dropped her head in defeat, tears dripping down her cheeks. Wetness spreading on her shoulder told her Jason was crying too.

Through her tears, she heard rustling and clunking behind her. When she turned her head, Leo was standing there, Buford by his side.

Leo had tear streaks down his soot and grease-stained cheeks. When he looked at Piper and Jason, then at everyone inside the room, another tear slipped down.

Jason held out an arm, silently inviting Leo to join the hug and Leo half-stumbled over to them, his right hand brushing against Buford's top, trying to keep himself balanced.

He leaned against them, looking back at Hazel who was gazing at them blankly from across the room.

"Perce." Nico's almost silent voice sounded deafening in the shocked silence of the room.

They had all known Annabeth had a tiny chance of survival, but she had done so well in her own quest, they had clung on to a shard of hope.

"No." growled Percy, standing up, flinging his chair back, sending it skittering across the floor.

Outside of the room, pipes exploded again, drawing an exhausted sob out of Leo who had spent ages and used countless supplies to fix them after the events over a week ago.

Piper could hear the crashing of waves below them and the ship surged in the water. She was flung against the doorway as they pounded into the side of the Argo II.

Leo cast an apologetic look towards Percy who was standing in the middle of the room, fists clenched at his sides, before turning and tiredly loping down the corridor in an attempt to get the ship stable.

Piper pulled Jason's arms off her, giving his hands a regretful squeeze, and turned to dash down the hall after Leo.

Just as she turned to leave, a quiet voice speak up from inside the room.

"I will make her _pay_."


	4. Chapter 4

"Percy!" Leo yelled as he half stood up in the stirrups he'd made on Festus.

The cestial dragon was intact again, fire billowing from his bronze jaws, as he swept his massive head from side to side. The earth goddess was screeching between his claws, molecules of dirt floating in a trail after them.

The son of the sea god looked up, from where he was standing in the middle of the battlefield, a ring of monsters around him, all too scared to attack first. He caught Leo's eye and nodded grimly, before leaping forward and slicing through three of the dracnae. This spurred the others into battle, their cries audible from where Leo surveyed the battle.

He saw Piper, standing back to back with Jason, the couple not leaving each other side since... Annabeth. They were slowly walking in a circle, two unidentifiable monsters squaring them to them.

Leo smirked, the monsters didn't stand a chance.

When he looked back at Percy, he seemed to have vanquished his foes, and was running towards the lake, slicing at monsters that got a little too into his way.

Leo directed Festus towards where Percy was headed, before leaning dangerously over his side to see if the metal beast had dropped the goddess, who was little more than a cloud of angry dust.

As he confirmed the enemy was in his (well, Festus') grasp, he noted Hazel seemed to be struggling, down on the ground. He dropped a few of his favourite grenades (some had Greek fire, some had the contents of sceptic tanks, it was a lucky dip really) over the side and watched as the short troll-like creature burnt. Hazel held a thumb-up to him, hair bouncing all over the place. He grinned down, and sat properly in the chair he'd specially made, hoping that slight jerk just then was _not_ it coming loose, but just a bit of turbulence.

Over the past week or so, he had been struggling to keep his mind away from Annabeth. She was the only person on the ship that understood his babble about machines _properly_ and helped him on it, Piper and Jason tried, but they couldn't do much else than sit there and nod encouragingly.

He had buried his thoughts with work, Percy taking no trouble in providing lots for Leo. He would be woken up by Percy's anguished screams down the hall and the popping of bolts in the pipes a few meters away from where he'd collapsed by his work bench.

But now, they had Gaia, and they would defeat her, Leo hoped _\- knew_ they would win this time. And no one would die anymore. Except they would because that was the entire point of this whole mission, but none of their friends would. Not anymore.

Leo was shaken out of his reverie by Jason, clutching Piper, flew up beside him, with a twisted smile on his face.

"You ready for the main event?" Leo gave his best friends a smile that was more of a grimace, which was returned by even sadder teeth-baring.

Jason placed Piper just behind Leo and she locked her arms around his waist. Nodding once at Leo, both of them knowing full well that this was the make-or-break deciding factor. They would win, or crash to the ground in a flaming ball of nope.

Jason clapped his arms to his sides and plummeted through the air, hand gripping his sword hilt.

The corners of Leo's mouth turned down and he steered Festus down after Jason.

He felt Piper's chin rest on his shoulder and he half-turned his head to acknowledge her.

"We're going to do it. For her. Percy won't let Gaia get away with it." She whispered, and Leo couldn't hear any charmspeak in her voice. He agreed with her wholly, Percy was going to rip the goddess apart, and worst-case scenario they would have to pull him off him, and hold him back from going after Hera, who had started this all. Leo had to say, if what had happened to Percy had happened to him (which had kind of already happened, he hadn't loved any one as much as his mother. And Percy didn't have to live with the guilt of knowing he killed her) he would be knocking on Mount Olympus, demanding to see the bitc- goddess.

"Ready?" Jason roared, hovering just above the lake, looking between Percy, rising up to meet them on a wave of water, and Leo who gave him a thumbs-up, without humour in his face.

"GO!" Percy yelled, and wow, it'd been a while since Leo had heard him speak, not counting the screams that echoed hauntingly on the Argo II at night.

Leo stared hard at Piper, as he got out of his seat. "Stay here. Jason will not forgive me if you get hurt."

Piper nodded her pale face, and Leo slung himself off the side of the great metal dragon, a wire of Imperial Gold around his waist in a harness, the other end secured to the dragon's head.

Both hands free, he sent wave after wave of fire at the cloud-of-dirt goddess. Leo nodded to himself, the nickname pretty much summed up her personality. Dirt.

"THIS IS FOR MY MOTHER, ESPRANZENA VALDEZ!" Leo roared and Festus clacked in agreement, bending his great head to blaze Gaia.

Percy let out a hoarse yell and sent half of the lake crashing into Gaia, Festus whirred as he rocked from the force and Leo looked up to see Piper looking down at Jason who was blasting the specks of dirt.

Leo shook, holding his hands in a continuous stream of fire, the water hissing as the fire hit it.

It took Leo a couple of seconds to realise where the screaming was coming from, especially seeing as he was setting it on fire. He didn't think that Gaia would scream, and it gave him a grim satisfaction.

Percy was just audible over it, but his words were so jumbled, Leo could hardly tell what he was yelling at her. But she quietened for a split second and Leo caught the end of his sentence; a grief-stricken howl.

"I loved her! How could you?! Why?!"

Leo felt a lump rise in his throat and glancing over to the other side of Festus' feet, he could see Jason with tears streaking down his face.

With another cry, Percy clenched his fists, and the water tendrils froze where they were, sticking through the goddess. Slowly, he pulled his hands apart, and the dust separated with a shriek.

Jason turned his attention to electrocuting the two groups. Leo burnt one at a time, trying not to hit Festus.

"I hate you!" Percy's wails were rising in hysterics and grief, Leo blinked back tears and at the rise of his emotions, his hands blazed and glowing specks of fiery mud fell to the lake, little plumes of smoke rising.

"So tired," Piper called from high above Leo. The goddess shifted into human form, her head rising up to look at Piper.

"So much sadness and heartbreak... Even for a goddess..." she continued and Gaia's head dropped in almost defeat. Leo felt his heart rise, one elbow locked around the wire.

Then a stray tendril of water shot towards him, one of many that were blasting out from Percy's hands, and almost severed the wire, sending Leo swinging.

"Perce!" he yelled, looking over in alarm at the son of Poseidon, who had his eyes firmly closed, mouth moving, uttering words that Leo couldn't hear.

Jason looked over at Leo, seeing Percy as well.

"What-" Leo just about made out, before the howling winds whipped his words away.

Jason nodded up at Piper who was valiantly shouting to Gaia with sympathy and sorrow in her voice. Then he looked at Leo to check he understood and shot up in the air like a bullet.

Leo had understood of course, and carried on being a Molotov cocktail by swinging ever closer (Percy hitting him had given him an idea, despite how even more dangerous it was) to Gaia and burning molecules of her at a time.

Percy hadn't seemed to notice Jason leaving, as the winds were still in full force, even as Jason descended to the ground with Piper, who was still yelling at Gaia. The Earth Mother was more sluggish, particles of dust only darting through the air rather than slicing.

Which may sound even worse, but the giant claw Festus and the constant assault on her kept her solid and less likely to crumble through the dragon's metal talons.

"Annabeth!" Percy roared one last time, and Leo could hear him clearly, the boy's anger and grief louder than even the Goddess' screeches.

Then, all of the lake rose up and crashed into Gaia, sending Festus flying through the air and Leo rocking. But the last beating had taken it toll on the dragon, who had been struggling even though the brunt of the force was directed at Gaia. The Imperial Gold wire slid from around Festus' neck and Leo was tumbling through the clouds.

Festus was falling with Leo too, fifty tons of circuitry and metal flapping uselessly. Leo realised three things just before he hit the ground:

Festus was going to take forever to fix, even if he did survive.

This was going to hurt.

Gaia was missing from the dragon's claws.

Leo clenched his eyes, the sounds of screaming campers audible and the clacking of Festus in Morse code (translated into: ' _My wings, my wings. Ow, ow, ow,'_ ) from below him.

Just before he crunched to the ground, there was a rush of water and suddenly he was enveloped in water; silvery bubbles bursting from his shocked mouth and floating up to the light.

Leo clamped his mouth shut before he swallowed any (more) water and suffocated, one thought in his mind as he swam to the top of the massive tank-like... Bubble he was in.

Well two.

What happened to Gaia, if Percy let her get away... He didn't finish that thought.

And, 'Oh the gods, I hope Festus isn't in here'

 **Okay more tomorrow because I've written loads of this one and its been a while.**

 **I'll be finished by next chapter, promise.**

 **Also, don't you love winter, the time for big jumpers and hot chocolate and the time for rubbing your nose raw because you have a cold. I apologise, putting it that way makes it sound gross, but still.**

 **Hope you're enjoying the countdown to Christmas (if you don't celebrate Christmas or are on the other side of the world, from Britain anyway, I still hope you have a great December and hope you enjoy whatever other activity you do instead)**

 **Fez.**


	5. Chapter 5

Leo's head broke the surface of the water, and he trod water, looking for his friends and Festus.

He could see Jason and Piper waving frantically from the shore and Leo ducked down in the water, assured that they were alright, looking for any wreckage of Festus on the lake bed.

Percy had given him a massive bubble of oxygen to breathe in, after he'd fallen into the water, and Leo was able to swim, despite the fact that he hated water. Festus couldn't swim and he would sink anyway, no doubt with his circuits screwed up by the water.

He rose up again, breathing hard and caught a glimpse of gold on he opposite bank to him- the outstretched wings, smoke pluming from the general direction. Leo felt a part of himself die at the sight of the dragon injured again, not just because they were friends and he had a soft spot for the hunk of metal, it would take him weeks, maybe even months if the damage was as bad as it looked from here.

Leo began swimming, a rather awkward more-of-a-flail legs-everywhere stroke towards Piper and Jason, hoping that they had figured out what had happened to Gaia.

Just as he'd begun swimming, he heard a rising scream behind him and he stopped and thrashed around, trying to see what was making the noise.

His instant thought was of Percy's wellbeing, so when he saw the dark-haired boy, buoyed by a pillar of water, he sank a little in the water, from relief and began searching the waters around the grim-looking boy for the goddess.

Another scream rose, assaulting Leo's ears and he realised that it was coming from Gaia.

Percy had her trapped in a slowly rising bubble of water, a cloud of her dirt moving sluggishly through the sphere of water.

He pulled something out of his back pocket and Leo froze in the water as he realised what it was.

It was a canister of Greek Fire, but the casing seemed to be made out of Imperial Gold.

Percy looked over the water at Leo, who was barely moving in the water, watching the scene play out in front of him in horror.

Leo knew what would happen if Percy set the canister off, it would kill him, for sure.

"Percy!" He yelled, he had to tell the boy what was going to happen, he wondered if the boy knew that he would die, or even if he wanted to die, after Annabeth's... Annabeth's death.

Percy tilted his head softly at Leo, before raising the arm holding the canister towards Leo. For a horrifying second, Leo thought Percy was going to throw it at him, but as a current picked up around his legs and carried him towards Jason and Piper, he realised what Percy was doing.

"Go Leo!" Percy roared over the divide between the two. "I've got it!"

But he didn't, but at the look in Percy's eyes, visible from even this distance, Leo knew he had been right. Percy didn't want to be without Annabeth.

So slowly, Leo nodded, the tears running down his face mixing with the water already there. He turned, trying to help the currents that Percy had given him get to Jason and Piper sooner.

And, as a whisper on the wind, Leo heard a sob and he turned his head to look back at the hero.

Then two things happened at once, one being wet soil oozing through Leo's fingers as he was swept onto the shore of the lake, Jason and Piper fretting over him, their words overlapping and running into each other before the noise from Number Two drowned them out, a wave of fire and electricity sweeping across the surface of the lake, licking at Leo's feet.

He heard Jason gasp, as he gazed numbly at the explosion, particles of Bitchy Goddess spraying across the lake in a wind that pushed Leo's hair back with force.

His ears rang as even more campers rushed to the shore of the lake, some cheering as Gaia was defeated and others asking about the fate of the son of Poseidon.

He sat there on the lake as everyone quietened and gazed out to the source of the explosion, a fine layer of ash on the surface of the lake and a faint of burnt flesh and ozone.

Percy's quiet words still ran through his head, and he felt himself smile, just a little bit.

Because it was okay.

Percy was with Annabeth now.

 **The last part wasn't meant to be that creepy and I hope it didn't come off too creepy.**

 **Percy's last words were 'I'm coming Annabeth' if you were interested.**

 **Well, I hope you've enjoyed this story through all of the long hiatus' and infrequent updates, but lo! Here it is.**

 **Leave a comment if you liked this story and thank you all so much for reading it.**

 **Fez.**


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